You're So Silent
by Streets of Fire
Summary: The best kind of boy for Raven is the kind that doesn't talk. Oneshot. Slight Jericho/Raven friendshipiness. Other ships hinted at, but if you're offended by hints I imagine you're very bad at riddles, so...


A/N Its late, I'm tired, I apologize. All hinted at couples are comic-verse.

Beast Boy had an amazing talent for commanding the attention of an entire room.

He also had an amazing talent for being so thoroughly obnoxious that it took every ounce of Raven's being not to leap across the room and wring his crappy joke spewing neck.

But, she was calm.

Perfectly calm.

Perfectly, _perfectly_ calm.

As if it wasn't enough to have to listen to the changeling tell knock-knock jokes, she also had to deal with a room full of teenage super heroes still half rattled from their fight with the Brotherhood of Evil and who were all very poor at hiding it.

Sure they were all laughing at the little green kid, but even from across the room in her quiet spot Raven could feel it all.

It might have been a little selfish, but she just wished people would remember she was an empath and not say anything at all. Beast Boy and Cyborg could try and cover it with a joke, Robin could save face with some bad ass comment, Star could grin and stumble through a terrible lie, but Raven always knew. Even she hadn't been an empath, she still could have felt the emotions rolling off a room packed with hormonal heroes.

Flashes of anger, frustration, triumph, anxiety, relief. Raven really hated when people didn't say what they felt. She always had to feel it out and that usually meant that something of herself would slip out of the crack she opened momentarily to figure out who was truly okay and who was smiling it all off.

Somewhere off on the other side of the room, Speedy started hitting on Kole and Raven felt Kole's blush rise to her own cheeks before Gnarrk's knitted eyebrows took the blush's place. Mas y Menos blew by hand in hand and the brothers' relief overcame Gnarrk's annoyance in a warm wave of affection. The boys were followed closely by Kid Flash, who skidded to a stop long enough to wink at Raven before racing off to catch up with the twins and for a moment Raven pondered whether or not to return the cocky gesture. Elsewhere in Beast Boy's captive audience, Teether fell slowly off to sleep on Bumblebee's shoulder. A wave of exhaustion rolled over Raven. Babies' emotions were so simple and straightforward.

Even after Pantha moved in front of the sleeping baby, the sleepy, dreamy feeling seemed to stick and Raven wondered if it was all catching up to her. She folded her legs under her and rested her wrists on her bent knees. Raven didn't want to be a killjoy and leave the group just to sleep. Besides, she was known to meditate if she wasn't taking part in the general activity and if she dozed off while take a mental stroll through the calm streets of the Azarath she had known as a child, well, who would really notice.

A few minutes passed and Raven could finally feel all the different parts of her lulling gently to sleep, wrapped in their capes. Everything was slowly switching off inside and sweet sleep was so close…

"Hey… what's green and sings… ELVIS PARSLEY!"

Always. Freaking. Talking.

Raven's eyes snapped open and honed in on Beast Boy with an angry, just-woken-up-from-hibernation scowl. If he had been paying attention, he would have shat himself.

A cool waft of something she hadn't sensed in a long time came floating by and Raven had to stop herself from following it like a cat following the scent of tuna in an old cartoon. The feeling seeped under her skin and nestled itself in her chest until the pleasant coolness had spread from her widow's peak all the way down to the tips of booted toes. With a sigh, Raven slipped off her hood and unfolded her limbs. She flexed her fingers as the coolness settled in her joints and for the first time in a very long, long time, Raven felt calm.

The calmness was joined by something much softer. It was triumph, but in no way the loud and over bearing triumph she had felt from some of her teammates before. It was sweet and altruistic. The triumph of helping someone else.

With the coolness still undoing the knots in her neck, Raven turned her head ever so slightly and found herself looking into the big round eyes of one of the new Titans.

The boy pointed to his eyes and gave her a small smile.

"So, you must be Jericho."

The boy nodded and pointed to his throat, slowly swinging his head from side to side. The soft smile never left his lips.

The new boy Jericho didn't have to say a word. Raven could already feel. He was excited to make a new friend.

"I think we'll get along just fine."

A/N Jericho is so chill. I wonder if he's rockin' the gange…. If you don't know anything about Jericho, he's Slade's son and had his vocal chords slit when he was a child. He can't talk, he has cool hair and in the comics, he and Raven were tight. Thus this story was born.


End file.
